St. Augustine, Fla. — In an epic three-day celebration of traditional and modern bluegrass music, the Anastasia Music Festival will feature over 20 of the brightest bluegrass stars performing live at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre Thursday, March 16 through Saturday, March 18. Set to perform are The Del McCoury Band, David Grisman’s Bluegrass Experience, Sam Bush, Elephant Revival, Fruition, Cabinet, Jeff Austin Band, The Travelin’ McCourys, Mandolin Orange, Sierra Hull, The Broomestix, Dustbowl Revival, Joe Pug, Jon Stickley Trio, The Honeycutters and more!

Anastasia Music Festival is excited to announce late night parties each night! On Thursday, Taylor Martin will host the “Anastasia Park Players” at Hoptinger St Augustine. Firewater Tent Revival Band hosts Friday night, also at Hoptinger St Augustine. Jon Stickley Trio & Friends perform Saturday’s late night at Elks Lodge. Expect lots of special guests and late night fun! Music will be on three stages of music at the St. Augustine Amphitheater and runs until 10pm on Thursday and 10:30pm on Friday and Saturday nights with the late night parties starting directly following.

“Bluegrass music has such a rich history and to host a three-day festival celebrating the genre at the Amphitheatre is truly special,” says Ryan Murphy, Director of the St. Johns County Cultural Events Division which owns and operates the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. “We hope that music fans of all ages and families from all over will come out and enjoy traditional and modern bluegrass among the natural park setting of the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.”

This family-friendly event also features a Kid’s Tent on Friday and Saturday featuring fun activities for children and Brenda Star Walker will host daily yoga on Friday and Saturday. Children 10 and under are free with paid adult admission. Information on camping packages and other accommodations are available online at www.anastasiamusicfestival.com.

The Daily Lineup:Performing on Thursday, March 16 will be Fruition, The Broomestix, The Honeycutters, Grits & Soul, Nikki Talley, Taylor Martin, and more to be announced. Gates are at 3pm with music starting at 4pm and music ends on Thursday at 10pm.

More information on all the performers can be found online at www.anastasiamusicfestival.com in addition to camping and hotel accommodations, as well as volunteer and vending information. VIP, Three-day, and Single day tickets for the Anastasia Music Festival are on sale now at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Box Offices, online at ticketmaster.com, all authorized TicketMaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000.

Anastasia Music Festival is a Three-Day Celebration of Bluegrass MusicAt The St. Augustine Amphitheatre Thursday, March 16-Saturday, March 18, 2017

St. Augustine, Fla. — In an epic three-day celebration of traditional and modern bluegrass music, the Anastasia Music Festival will feature over 20 of the brightest bluegrass stars performing live at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre Thursday, March 16 through Saturday, March 18. Bands performing include The Del McCoury Band (two sets), David Grisman’s Bluegrass Experience, Sam Bush, Elephant Revival, Fruition (three sets), Cabinet (two sets), Jeff Austin Band, The Travelin’ McCourys (two sets), Mandolin Orange (two sets), Sierra Hull, The Broomestix, Dustbowl Revival (two sets), Joe Pug, Jon Stickley Trio (two sets), and more! See the daily lineup below and stay tuned for more news about after-parties each night after the music ends at several local venues all three nights.

It’s also quite special to note that three generations of McCourys are represented at Anastasia. The Broomestix, a nine-piece R&B/Soul/Funk/Pop group out of the Nashville area, features Del McCoury’s grandson, Evan McCoury, on guitar, very exciting!

“Bluegrass music has such a rich history and to host a three-day festival celebrating the genre at the Amphitheatre is truly special,” says Ryan Murphy, Director of the St. Johns County Cultural Events Division which owns and operates the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. “We hope that music fans of all ages and families from all over will come out and enjoy traditional and modern bluegrass among the natural park setting of the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.”

This family-friendly event also features a Kid’s Tent on Friday and Saturday featuring fun activities for children and Brenda Star Walker will host daily yoga on Friday and Saturday. Children 10 and under are free with paid adult admission. Information on camping packages and other accommodations are available online at www.anastasiamusicfestival.com.

The Daily Lineup:Performing on Thursday, March 16 will be Fruition, The Broomestix, Grits & Soul, Nikki Talley, Taylor Martin, and more to be announced. Gates are at 3pm with music starting at 4pm and music ends on Thursday at 10pm.

Stay tuned for more about each night’s after-parties for a list of venues and bands.

More information on all the performers can be found online at www.anastasiamusicfestival.com in addition to camping and hotel accommodations, as well as volunteer and vending information. VIP, Three-day, and Single day tickets for the Anastasia Music Festival are on sale now at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Box Offices, online at ticketmaster.com, all authorized TicketMaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000.

“Musicologists will appreciate the chapters on Doc’s singing style and guitar work… Music fans will delight in the book as a whole, a splendid recounting of Doc Watson as man whose ‘…approach to folk music on a guitar was like Horowitz’s approach to the piano…”–Gary Presley, The Internet Review of Books

“This is a highly informative, fascinating biography of the great Doc Watson. What a life. It’s a page-turner that will keep you up past your bedtime. Don’t miss it.”–The Inland Northwest Bluegrass Association

“This is a valuable, anecdotal work anyone interested in Doc’s music and life will enjoy reading.” –Bluegrass Unlimited

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Award-winning author Kent Gustavson was born immersed in a rich musical heritage. As the son of peaceniks, he grew up with family sing-alongs. From Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan, he darted to classical, jazz, and avant-garde jazz, before circling back to the Greenwich Village folk canon and tracing that music back. In singer-guitarist Doc Watson, Gustavson found a treasure of American music. His biography of Watson, Blind But Now I See (Sumach-Red Books) is the definitive biography of an American icon.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based author is uniquely qualified to write a book that merges myth, musicology, and American history. He holds a PhD in classical composition from Stony Brook University in New York, where he taught leadership, writing, literature, music and German for ten years. He’s an active musician with 14 critically acclaimed albums, and his music has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered. He also hosts a radio show, Sound Authors, where he has interviewed hundreds of award-winning authors and musicians.

Blind But Now I See is the first comprehensive biography of Doc Watson. It was written over 6 years, culled from meticulous archival research and well over a hundred interviews. The book brims with insights from such legendary musicians as Bela Fleck, Ben Harper, David Grisman, David Moultrup, Jerry Douglas, Jonathan Byrd, Marty Stuart, Michelle Shocked, Mike Seeger, Norman Blake, Ricky Skaggs, Tommy Emmanuel, Tony Rice, Tony Trischka, and Warren Haynes, among many others. It is a winner of a Next Generation Indie Book Award, and finalist in the Foreword Book of the Year Awards. The book has sold 5,000 paperbacks and 25,000 e-books. Vintage Guitar Magazine praises it as: “A touching story about overcoming life’s obstacles.” Blind But Now I See is now available in its expanded second printing, with a third and even more expansive edition already in the works.

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ben Harper says in his Blind But Now I See interview: “There was a sense of grace, effortlessness, and fluidity to Doc Watson’s musicianship and singing that is nothing short of miraculous.”

Watson’s influence has been recognized by presidents and by heroes of modern music such as Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Ben Harper, Robert Plant, and Gillian Welch, but little is known about his personal life, his complex relationship with his son, Merle, his mythical rise to prominence, and his awe-inspiring musicality. Watson was a blind boy from the small town of Deep Gap, North Carolina who grew up in the Depression, then lived in abject poverty until being brought into the 1960s folk scene. For over 52 years, Watson mesmerized bluegrass, folk, and rock audiences with his soft baritone and fiery guitar licks

Gustavson’s congenial but probingly insightful interview skills help piece together a powerful and honest character mosaic. His vibrant, erudite, and enthusiastic prose demystifies Watson’s astounding musicality and dissects the paradoxes and complexities of the man with bold sensitivity.

In an interview with esteemed alt-country publication No Depression Gustavson said: “I stumbled across a copy of The Watson Family by Folkways records. Watson’s voice was so rock-solid in those family hymns that I still sing the bass part today, because it’s stronger in my mind than the melody! He pointed me towards the blues, early rock and roll, traditional Appalachian fiddle music, and balladry. He literally started a brush fire in my musical mind.”

In 2004 Gustavson began writing Blind But Now I See, and nearly 10 years later and three editions in he’s emerged an authority on the enigmatic icon. He told No Depression: “Countless close friends and family members of Doc have come to me over the past two years and thanked me for writing this biography, and for really framing the reality surrounding his life.” Besides the plaudits from insiders, the biggest reward is bringing this journey back home. “In the new edition I finally got a chance to speak to Pete Seeger,” Gustavson says. “I called my parents and told them ‘Pete Seeger just spoke to me!’ What an honor.”

Brought together three years ago for a night of unrehearsed interaction as a fundraiser for school programs by The Rooster’s Wife, an arts organization in Aberdeen, NC that focuses on education and specializes in unusual pairings of artists, the two fell into a serendipitous experience. Not until the evening was winding down did it become known that the two had last seen each other when performing on Jerry Garcia’s final recording. The program was a resounding success, not only for the small non profit, but as kindling for a renewed musical friendship. Isis is happy to be keep this musical spirit growing.

Multiple Grammy- Award Winner Howard Levy is an acknowledged master of the diatonic harmonica, a superb pianist, innovative composer, recording artist, bandleader, teacher, producer, and Chicago area resident. His musical travels have taken him all over the geographical world and the musical map. Equally at home in Jazz, Classical music, Rock, Folk, Latin, and World Music, he brings a fresh lyrical approach to whatever he plays. This has made him a favorite with audiences worldwide, and a recording artist sought after by the likes of Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Paquito D’Rivera, Styx, Donald Fagen, and Paul Simon. As a sideman, Howard has appeared on hundreds of CDs and played on many movie soundtracks.
He is perhaps best known for the four CD’s he recorded with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, a unique band that set the musical world on its ear back in the early 1990’s. He got back together with the band in 2010 and recorded the CD Rocket Science. They toured extensively in 2011-2012, and Howard won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for “Life in Eleven”, which he wrote with Bela Fleck.

Creativity educator, former museum curator, visual artist, actor/storyteller, festival emcee and recipient of the 2009 Folk Alliance Far-West Performer of the Year, Joe Craven has made music with many folks ranging from multi-string instrumentalist David Lindley to Blues slide guitar master Roy Rogers to Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and groups from Psychograss to The Persuasions to The Horseflies. He was percussionist and fiddler for mandolinist David Grisman for almost 17 years and was special guest with fusion banjo player Alison Brown and her Quartet for almost 7 years.

Always looking for the next expression and object to make music with, Joe is a musical madman with anything that has strings attached or not; violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar/banjo, mouth bow, canjoe, cuatro, balalaika, boot ‘n lace and double-necked whatever. He has created music and sound effects for commercials, soundtracks, computer games and contributions to several Grammy nominated projects. Joe’s performed at festivals and theaters worldwide, from Hardly Strictly to The Kennedy Center and from CA Worldfest to Carnegie Hall, where he joined folks like Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor to help celebrate Stephane Grappelli’s 80th birthday.

On March 15th at Isis, expect the unexpected with percussion of the highest order and in all types of arrangements- from piano to Bundt pan, along with mandolin, violin and of course harmonica played like no one else.

This is a seated concert with dinner reservations. Reservations can be made by calling Isis at 828-575-2737. There are a limited number of reservations at tables of 4 or 8. There is also theater-style and limited balcony seating seating available on a first come first serve basis.

We are thrilled to announce Peter Rowan will be joining The Mosier Brothers for a series of select shows! Peter Rowan has played in Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in the supergroup Old & In The Way, and with Tony Rice and a host of other acclaimed musicians throughout his storied career. Now, the Grammy winner joins The Mosier Brothers, the Atlanta band that evolved from the psychedelic hick-hop jamgrass band, Blueground Undergrass.

Rowan says, “I am always ready to collaborate with Jeff Mosier and his fine musicians, to explore the musical tree of Americana-bluegrass roots. We might even find some new branches on the old tree! We can harvest new fruit from old roots!”

Jeff Mosier and Peter Rowan met in 1985 on Mosier’s radio show in Atlanta. Since 1998 they have shared the stage together many times including Suwannee Springfest and Magnolia Festival in Live Oak, Florida. Rowan has always been a key figure in The Mosier Brothers career giving them what Mosier calls “the inspiration to fly between the extremes of traditional and progressive bluegrass music styles, even entering into psychedelic jamgrass and rock.”

The Mosier Brothers, originally from Bristol, Tennessee, have always maintained their “brother sound” amid their various configurations. The solid band sound that Rowan had heard from them over the years, along with their collective stage experience, eclectic musical taste, and genre bending tendencies, created the perfect creative soil in which to forge ahead with a project which both Mosier and Rowan had been thinking about for years. Johnny Mosier’s ability to switch-hit between playing bluegrass with flatpick style guitar, to rock, swing, and jazz on electric guitar, along with Jeff’s unique ability to compose “pick and jam” rock songs on the banjo, are the true ingredients of the “Mosier sound.”

Johnny and Jeff Mosier. Photo by Ian Rawn.

Veterans of the jamband and jamgrass scenes, The Mosier Brothers have been entertaining audiences for over 30 years (longer if you consider pickin’ on the front porch with their family), first with the bluegrass band Good Medicine for 23 years. In the late 1980’s, Jeff Mosier got his first experience playing Rock on the cutting edge of the newly developing jamband scene as a founding member of Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit, the band that gave him the stage name “Rev.” In 1994 he toured with Phish and tutored them in the ways of bluegrass. The Phish Companion writes “Perhaps no guest artist has had as great an influence on the band’s music as the Rev. Jeff Mosier…”. The brothers re-joined in 1998 in Jeff Mosier’s first nationally known brainchild, Blueground Undergrass, one of the earliest bands to merge bluegrass instruments and traditional tunes with the magnetic energy of Rock n Roll. Then, in 2010, they formed The Mosier Brothers which more finely blends the traditional bluegrass sound of Good Medicine and the jamming of Blueground Undergrass into a more song-driven Americana roots rock unit, all while remaining an eclectic endeavor.

For these “Roots and Branches” shows, Peter Rowan and The Mosier Brothers will be performing an A-Z retrospective of Rowan’s musical career.

Peter Rowan. Photo by Ronald Rietman.

The band will take the audience on a musical journey that builds throughout the evening, starting with the traditional bluegrass of Rowan’s days with Bill Monroe in the 1960’s, then leading into the progressive bluegrass years of Old and In The Way, Crucial Country, and The Free Mexican Air Force. The result: a night of life-affirming songs with rich melodies and harmonies, all led by the compelling stories of Peter Rowan that will serve as the backdrop for each musical number. Of that, Mosier says, “I think people really want and need to hear ‘songs’ now more than ever, and more importantly, the stories that inspired them.”

Mosier continues, “We can go anywhere Peter wants to go musically with this show, because his career helped mold our own musical taste. He’s been such a major influence on us. He’s like our Bill Monroe and Beatles all in one. The Monroe generation of players spawned the Rowan generation, and the Rowan generation spawned the Mosier generation, no doubt.”

Johnny Mosier adds, “After years of enjoying Rowan’s music from the audience, to actually perform with him on stage is a true joy and career high for me.”

Peter Rowan and The Mosier Brothers will be both acoustic and electric for each performance, as will their band of Kris Dale on bass, Edward Hunter on fiddle, and Will Groth on drums. The Rowan/Mosier recipe will give the songs a new spin while keeping the original flavor, in what promises to be one of the tastiest of musical collaborations.